Lesser of Two Evils
by Haon Keis
Summary: Riku, a good kid with bad influences, has angered his mom for the last time, so she decides to send him off to boarding school in order to straighten himself up. Frustrated and out of his element, Riku meets a friend who helps him solve his issues and make it up to his mom. Rated M for drug consumption and violence.


_The Hawk looks below_

 _At a feast of worms and bugs_

 _Hunger is not stirred_

 _Nor a carnivorous thought_

 _He simply flies and moves on._

 _That was a poem I made in seventh grade. At the time, I hadn't realized how much meaning that it held for me as a person. I just thought hawks were cool and how it would be weird if they hadn't chased after their prey and instead just left them go. The "hawk" seemed to relate more and more to me as I grew..._

 _Chapter 1: Renewed Distrust_

The sound of breaking glass wakes my foggy slumber as I pry my face off the ground. A long wire of drool attaches me to the ground before I wipe it off my face with my bare hand. I sit on my knees and out of curiosity, I sniff my shirt. I flinch at strong smell of alcohol there. To top it all off, I hardly remember where the hell I am. I look to my left and I am nearly blinded by the low hanging sun glaring at me through the window. Was it sunrise or sunset?

I duck behind a couch once I realize what had just happened with the glass. I look around dizzily. Purple couches, black vases, red carpet. This is someone's living room certainly not my own.

"Everyone put your hands in the air!" an angry sounding man said. That really couldn't be anyone other than a cop.

"Damnit!" some other dude said before I hear him drop to the ground in fear.

At this point I knew the situation had already gone beyond the point of no return so I just said 'Screw it' and stood up with my hands up. Two cops approached me and roughly forced my hands behind my back. Before I knew it I was behind the back of a cop car headed 'downtown.'

Out of curiosity I inspected the car. It smelled like old leather and cliché car freshener. He had a sun-powered, dancing, Hawaiian doll on the dash as well some faded, red fuzzy dice hanging from the rear view.

"You know, a boy your age shouldn't be drinking, son," the cop said while looking towards the road.

"I'm not your 'son,'" I replied back looking at his bald head. He just shook it and kept driving silently for a while.

"And you should show more respect to your elders, young man. You youngins are getting out of hand," he said a bit later.

"Would you give it a rest? I'm tired," I say quietly.

"Well, at least you know that you need to sleep."

 _What?_ I thought. I didn't even bother responding to that one.

The drive just continued like we hadn't started talking in the first place. Once we got to the police station I got the opportunity to call someone. I would call my dad, but last time I checked he lived in a different city hundreds of miles away, so I settled for the next best thing: Good 'ol mom.

I punched in the number shaking my head as I did so. It took a few rings before she picked up. She gave that familiar, slightly worried 'Hello?' that I hear far too often.

"Hey, ma."

"Riku?"

"Yeah…"

"Goodness, I hadn't seen you all day yesterday. Where've you been?

I sighed, "I, uh, got in trouble again, ma."

"Oh, dear, Riku! Was it that yellow haired girl again?"

"Nah, me and the guys were hanging again. There was this guy and... You know some stuff happened and then the cops came."

"I'll… I'll be at the police station in bit."

"Thanks again, ma…"

She hung up without another word. I hate disappointing her, but I just wanna do my own thing. Within twenty minutes my mom was here wearing a night gown with her sweater over top. I hardly listened as she negotiated with the policemen in the station. I got off scot-free as usual. We began the short, awkward walk to the car. I avoided eye contact.

She used the key to open her door and pressed a button to open all the doors. I hopped in the mini-van and sat on the edge of my seat away from her hoping she wouldn't smell me. I know she isn't naive and suspected drinking, but I'd find it embarrassing for her to mention my smell. When she drove off I looked out the window to my right, avoiding my mom's eyes again. I felt her look at me… Or was it that I saw her peek at me in the reflection in the window?

My entire back went all ticklish as she stared. Inevitably I looked her softly in her blue eyes as she practically stabbed me with her own.

"Three times, Riku. Three times I had to rescue you from affairs you shouldn't be in," she said.

I was going to use the typical teenage excuse: 'I know,' but something made me keep quiet and listen.

"And guess the time frame for those three times?" she continued. "You don't know? A month. Look you're sixteen, damn near seventeen. Those policemen probably let you go because you're so young. I just don't know what to do with you."

She put two fingers on her right temple and rubbed them. I was starting to feel guilty, but that didn't stop me before.

The rest of the drive was fairly quiet. The only other questions concerned dinner and what we should eat for it.

Finally I was home. It was 7:43 a.m. according to the clock hanging on my living room wall in front of the pale green paint and above the tan carpet and brown furniture that look so familiar.

I feel in my pockets for my phone. Of course it wasn't there.

 _Wow._ I thought.

I stood in the hallway beside my living room feeling every pocket I had. Nothing.

"Ma, have you seen my phone?!" I yelled desperately to the other room.

"I'm not sure! Check if it fell in the car!" she yelled back.

I grab the keys off the living room table and jog to the curb where my mom parked. I open the door and first place I look is in between the front seats. I look under the seat also, but I find nothing. I slide open the door to the back seats and repeat the process. I didn't find my phone, but I did find one of my old action figures.

Disappointed, I leave the car.

"Yo, what up, Riku?"

I look to my left and see Demyx, a 6' guy who wears a different pair of glasses every day. Today they were a white pair of shutter shades.

"Jeez, dude. You look like you got ran over. Hehe," he said

The little chuckle pissed me off. "Thanks. It mirrors how I feel." I replied dryly.

"You didn't respond to my text, so I stopped over to see if you were okay after the party yesterday."

"Well my phone fell off the planet, so I wouldn't know. And oh yeah, the cops came."

"Oh, damn. Dude, I didn't know that would've happened. I should've given you a ride home, dude. That's really my bad."

"Nah, I can't pin any blame on you. I wanted to stay if I remember correctly. I didn't get in any trouble, so it's whatever."

"Oh, sweet bro! Oh yeah are you tryna' hang later? The whole crew is getting together again today."

"What? So we can end up party hopping like we did yesterday? I'll pass."

"Yo, you sure, yo?"

"Yes. I'm sure, yo," I mocked.

He scoffed, "Oh, okay. It's whateves. We'll chill some other time. Later, Riku."

He was one of my so called friends, but I felt like he and the others planned to leave me yesterday. The whole 'I wanted to stay' thing. Yeah that was was a lie. I know for a fact that they left me. I didn't think too much more about it as I headed back into my house.

I walked back into the house and threw the keys on the table again and sighed as I walked into the living room. I contemplated going right to my bed, but once I realized how I smelled I rejected that and decided to take a shower. I took off the corny basketball jersey I was wearing and trekked shirtless to my room. I opened the annoyingly creaky door and stripped bare before wrapping myself in a purple-blue towel and made my way down the narrow white corridor to the bathroom.

The bathroom was already warm and smelled like toothpaste and lavender. My mom had already showered. Luckily, I could hop right in because the water was already warm. First of all I washed all the trash out of of my hair. It had felt like a steel wool carpet ever since I woke up earlier. As I let it soak I could feel the the hot water releasing the pressure points in my back. The water alone seemed to be doing wonders for my silver locks. As a precaution I added some shampoo and conditioner. Next in and around my ears were scrubbed. Then my neck and belly button. I lather both my arms and my abs too. From there it gets a bit personal… Last but not least I brush my teeth. Yes, in the shower. I don't care if it's gross it saves time.

Out of the shower and clean as a whistle I throw on a pair of boxers and a wife beater. Over that, my favorite banana pajamas. I check the house clock again and it's already 9:12. Where the hell did the time go? I head into the living room. I flick off the light and realize it's pitch black outside.

Luckily for me it was the weekend, so there was no need to worry about school work just yet. Another concern at the moment was hunger, but I honestly couldn't be bothered to move from my comfy position on the couch. I was looking at the T.V., but didn't actually watch it. Instead I tuned into my own thoughts and I started to get flashbacks of earlier today when I was drinking. It was still fuzzy I just remember a whole lot of beer pong, shots, alcohol infused watermelon and rainbow jello shots off of some hot chick. My stomach knotted and throat burned just from the thought. I was really tired at this point but, but I still gaze at the television. I fight to keep my eyes open. Every few minutes my eyes would close without me realizing and I'd shift my position to keep me awake. Soon enough I would lose that pointless battle midway through a comedy movie.

I was told as a kid that everyone dreams and that it just depends on whether we remember them or not. In this case, I never remember my dreams. I only see black, but I remember the emotions I feel. And honestly that doesn't bother me. I am a bit jealous of those people that can lucid dream though.

"Riku." I hear right next to my ear. I wake up immediately, but don't respond.

"Riiiiiiikuuuu…" The voice says again. My eyelids grind against my cornea as I open my eye to find my mom all dressed for work in her nurse's clothing. "Head to your room sleepy-head. It's chilly in here. You'll catch a cold!"

"Mhm," I grunt while sitting up.

"Well, I'm off to work, Riku," she said planting a kiss on my cheek and heading for the door. "I won't be home until 3 o'clock tomorrow, so please stay safe, Riku. I… I just need you to be safe okay? Love you."

"Yeah, alright. Love you too, ma," I say solemnly before she opens, then softly closes the front door behind her.

Silence. That silence I was all too used to. I got off the couch and headed to my room for the night. I throw on my blue Spider-Man comforter and attempt to continue my black dreams. After what felt like an hour of trying to fall asleep I just stared at my white ceiling thinking about absolutely nothing. It kind of mad me angry how I couldn't fall asleep despite this long day.

"Screw this," I say pitching my cover to the other side of the room and getting up with an idea in mind.

Typically to entertain myself I use my phone playing corny tapping games or using social media. The games were pretty much lost, but the social media could be found on my mom's laptop. I went into her room and found it lying on the old dressing table beside her bed.

I picked it up and rested it on my lap as I sat on the edge of the bed. With little to no effort I entered her password: "Password" and I proceeded to the internet. I figured that it'd be wrong to sign into anything other than facebook first. When that was done I looked at my feed and saw nothing but videos about useless stuff. Getting specific I went onto Demyx' profile and lo and behold I find tons of videos about the party yesterday slash two days ago (depending on how you look at it).

Most of the videos were pretty tame and I was rarely seen in them but there was a video of me dominating in beer pong. Until I scrolled one last time and found something really bad. The last video had a description: "Riku go home ur too turnt" with a ton of obnoxious emojis afterwards.

In it I was practically...well I _was_ stumbling around like an idiot, dancing like an idiot, and being an all around dickhead to all the people near me. I walked past this one chick and dumped water on her for no reason. Then I went to the kitchen sink. Doused my head until my hair was completely soaked and shook it out like a dog in a group of people. I knew leaving a comment about it wouldn't help, so I decided that I should just talk to Demyx about it in school tomorrow, er, on Monday. That stuff was mortifying. And on top of all that it had like 300 reactions. I couldn't believe he would post that crap. One quick glance at the time and I see that it was 2:17 a.m. I just shook my head and closed the laptop in embarrassment. Even social media wasn't a good idea.

I admit defeat by heading to my room and forcing myself to sleep. I succeeded.

I woke 6 and a half hours later, but didn't get out of bed instead I turned to my side. By doing that I was able to peek at my glow in the dark watch that was so conveniently placed on the dressing table beside me. It read '8:49 a.m.' Luckily I woke up at the time I normally do, give or take.

I stretched, but then I began to think about yesterday and the day before and how I had upset my mom as usual. It was going to be about five hours before she came home, so I thought I'd surprise her by making her lunch or something, but first it was breakfast time. I promptly brushed my teeth then headed to the kitchen.

The cool rush of air from the opened fridge felt good especially in this stifling air. I looked up, down, then back up again scanning like a predator looking for a kill in the wild. Eventually I found my prey: a pack of bacon and a few eggs.

I open up one of the upper cabinets above the stove hoping to find the teflon frying pan, but instead three particularly heavy pots come crashing down on my head and toes. I cry out the second I felt the hard metal collide with my head. Surprised by this, I immediately cover the point of impact on my head with one hand and start jumping around like an idiot holding my injured foot with the other available hand.

Eventually, I sit myself down at the kitchen table I gingerly feel my scalp. A strange sensation is felt there as if I was bleeding when, in fact, I was not. Then I nurse my toes. Only two of them got hit, but the pain resonated in my chest. I just rub them until the dull pain faded.

"Beautiful start," I said with pure sarcasm in my voice.

I was about to get up and clean up this wreck when I heard the front door open. I turned around and looked down the hallway. As I unexpectedly expected, it was Mom.

"Riku! I'm home, honey!" she called from the living room.

"Hey, Mom. I was just making you breakfast," I partially lied as she walked into the kitchen. "How was work?"

"Ugh. Boring and tiresome as always. How was your night?"

"Just boring, but it was relaxing I needed it." she said making her way to and sat at the table and looked down at the pots and pans everywhere.

She giggled, "I think those are supposed to go in the top cabinet, Riku."

"Yeah, well gravity decided that he wanted them on the floor...and on my head...and toes.

She laughed even more, "Did they fall on you?!"

"Yeah! It hurt too!"

She was in hysterics. Laughing wildly in her arms on the table. Watching her smile made me smile.

"Hey, Mom. Why don't you get settled and change outta those stiff work clothes. By the time you're finished I should be done here."

"Alright. I'll take a shower and be back it a little, then." Just like that she went to her room.

I didn't really feel like cooking anything fancy, so just fried some eggs and bacon and toasted bread. On my mom's plate I cut up some bananas and strawberries and put them into a bowl on this side.

It had been a few minutes I had already downed my whole plate and a few strawberries, so I carried the plate to her room, waiter style, and knocked gently on her door.

"Mom! Food's done," I yell through the door,

Without a response my mother aggressively opened the door, laptop in hand, "Riku, what the hell is this?!"

My heart immediately sank once I realized my blunder.


End file.
